DISCOVERY 



l.iil to find the stranded pilot. Landing grounds are 

 marked at intervals across the desert. 



A Descent in the Arabian Desert 

 The first incident of the day was when we lost 

 the way. In order to get good kinematograph pictures 



took the opportunity of flying over the volcano in 

 order to see what it looked like from the air. Little 

 could be seen except volumes of sulphurous smoke 

 and steam, with a red glow in its heart. The sides of 

 the volcano were seamed with lava streams. As we 

 flew straight into the clouds, we were bumped and 

 rocked violently from side to side and shot about of our escort— a Vickers " Vernon "—we had edged 

 600 feet into the air. The taste of sulphur, which too near to her. Flight-Lieut. Hilton, the pilot, 

 is stated by scientists not to be present in naturally wondered what we were doing, as there was 

 Vesuvius, remained in our mouths for days after- plenty of room in the desert, and so had to keep a 

 wards. careful eye on our manoeuvres in order to obviate 



Our crossing of the Mediterranean from Athens was the risk of a collision. We were flying rather low, 

 entirely uneventful. The engine— a 240 h.p. Siddeley less than 1,000 ft. above the ground, and suddenly, 

 Puma— ran perfectly throughout. We accomplished to our surprise, the " Vernon " throttled down and 

 the journey of about 500 miles in four and a half landed on a mud flat. We followed suit, only to 



hours, landing 

 at Solium — a 

 British post 

 on the Tri- 

 politan fron- 

 tier — towards 



find that our escort had completely lost the way. 

 He had lost the track through watching us. The 

 fault was ours, and in order to remedy it Macmillan 

 and Hilton went up in the D.H.g to search for the 

 route, whilst we remained on the ground with the 

 " Vernon." After about an hour they returned, and 

 evening. For we resumed the journey together, soon taking up the 



track and continuing on our 

 way. 



The heat became intense as 

 the sun rose and the air ex- 

 tremely bumpy. The track itself 

 was so faint and difficult to 

 follow, that it had to be watched 



SKETCH MAP SHOWING THE ROUTE FOLLOWED BY MAJOR BLAKE ON HIS ATTEMPTED WORLD FLIGHT. 



three hours of our flight we were out of sight of land 

 and saw no sign of any vessel, so that, had we come 

 down in the sea, we should not have been picked up 

 again. 



Next day we continued our journey to Aboukir, 

 near Alexandria, and from thence to Ramleh and 

 Ziza on the western edge of the Arabian Desert, 

 where we were to pick up a R.A.F. machine which 

 was to escort us across the desert. 



The desert crossing is not made by taking a compass 

 course as most people would imagine, but by following 

 the track of motor-cars which were run across from 

 Amman to Ramadie some time ago. All aircraft 

 have to hold closely to this route, so that, in the 

 event of a forced landing, machines can be sent out 

 from either end, and by following the track cannot 



intently, for which reason it was impossible to rise 

 high into the air to avoid the bumps, for we"could not 

 see the trail at anything above a thousand feet. 



After about another hour and a half's flying the 

 " Vernon " again landed, and once more we followed 

 suit. This time our escort had developed engine 

 trouble. Throughout the day work was done on the 

 "Vernon's" engines, and towards evening Hilton 

 tried to make another start, but the engine was still 

 out of order, and eventually we set out alone, hoping 

 to cover more than half the distance to Baghdad 

 before nightfall and resume our journey early in the 

 morning. 



An Oasis and Some Friendly Arabs 

 Realising that water was running short through 



